I had a romantic notion of island hopping through dramatic karst rock formations by ferry when I opted to take the ferry instead of the train from Kuala Lumpur to Bangkok, but I had begun to sour on the idea. As I mentioned in a previous story, the high speed ferries of Thailand required that I stay in my seat during the trip and offered very little opportunity for viewing the islands I passed by. 

I’d spent a couple hours the night before researching and deliberating my options to Bangkok. I could take a 30 minute boat ride to the town of Trang in Thailand and catch the train directly to Bangkok, but it meant cutting out the town of Phang Nga and its magical rock strewn bay. Seeing this bay was pretty much the main reason I decided to travel through southern Thailand before heading north to Bangkok.

Then there was a boat to Trang with a bus transfer to Phang Nga. That was the cheapest option and still included a couple days of sightseeing on the Phang Nga bay. The trip would have taken about 7 hours in total, but it was also the quickest option for achieving all of my goals. The downside, of course, abandoning my island hopping idea.

A third option was a high speed ferry direct to Phuket which was only an hour’s bus ride from Phang Nga. This was the most expensive option at about $50 USD, and I already knew what to expect of that kind of ferry.

The final option was a slow ferry to the island of Koh Lanta and then on to the town of Krabi where I could catch a bus to arrive at Phang Nga in about 30 minutes. This provided the promising prospect of fulfilling my dream of daisy chaining the west coast islands of Thailand, and it was about half the price of the direct ferry trip to Phuket. I did some research and found there was actually a hostel perched above the water next to the ferry dock in Koh Lanta. A intriguing sparkle of promise there.

The man at the ticket office assured me that I could roam about the deck of the slow ferry, but to be sure, I decided I’d go to the pier the next morning to investigate.

An added surprise awaited when I arrived at the pier the next morning. Apparently there was a local farmers market that set up stalls along the waterfront that day. I negotiated to buy a single banana and headed out along the pier.

I’d begun to have doubts because from the market, I couldn’t see the ferry at the end of the pier due to its low profile. I’d been envisioning something larger, but as I approached the boat, I saw people sprawled about the open upper deck. This is exactly what I’d been hoping for on my ferry travels.

I went back and purchased my ticket for the next day. Even though it was more expensive than the bus trip, I rationalized that the opportunities it would provide for picture taking made it a bargain compared to the sightseeing tours which visited the same area.

The ferry made several stops so I got to see some of the other islands of the Andaman sea from an even closer perspective than I’d anticipated. About an hour from Koh Lanta, the ferry slowed, and an identical ferry pulled up alongside us. A man hopped from the other ferry to ours, and we were on our way again. Our new crew member walked around the ferry asking everyone their destination on the island, and when we arrived at the pier, he took on the role of bus driver. Apparently he’d spent the morning picking up people from the island of Koh Lanta to bring them to the ferry. He then left the bus at the pier and boarded the other ferry only to transfer to ours to take us to our island destinations.

I was the last to be dropped off, at the ferry pier for northbound trips. I’d picked a hostel close to the pier so it would be easy to catch the first ferry to Krabi in the morning. The building I entered had the feel of a treehouse built over the river. The entire floor was made or wooden planks that allowed glimpses of the water below. There were buoys and floats hanging from the ceiling, and the flags blowing above the waterfront deck mimicked those of the ferry berthed in the river just beyond the edge of the hostel. That would be my morning ride.

I was pleased I hadn’t abandoned my plans of traveling by boat up the coast of Thailand, and there I was spending the night in what, for all intents and purposes, felt like the best ferry experience possible.